Page 58 of Shadowlands Omega

“But do you want to say yes?”

Her hesitation fills me with madness. I grab her wrist and bring her callused hand to my mouth, brushing my lips over her hardened knuckles.

“I…do.”

“However?” I snap.

“However, I…” Her fingers still against my scalp. She removes them and I curse my temper. “I’m still quite afraid of you. Your capacity for violence and brutality. I just…” She inhales deeply once again and exhales heavily, her cool breath fanning over all of my wounds. “I don’t have anything to say, Yaron. A day ago, the whole town was convinced my family was a bunch of killers. It makes sense that the male who wants my hand would be, too. Justice is no excuse for death and yet…it does not change my feelings. Because you were right in the cab of that chariot. You could raise an arrow to my friends and a torch to my family and forgiveness would still find a way to trump my reason.” Her fingers return to my arms this time, and she begins massaging me in firm ministrations.

It feels glorious — or it would, if I weren’t so tense. Damn the wounds on my back, I flip over and move into a seat, startling her so that she slips off of her knees and lands on her hip with a squeak. “I want you to want me for who I am, not in spite of it.”

She scowls. “I want you to lie back down and rest.”

I growl. She narrows her eyes and points at the sheets. “Down, boy.”

I growl louder, incapable of keeping my blood from surging south. “You speak to me like that and you’re inviting my beast to rage.”

“Keep him in your pants and maybe I’ll see to him later.”

I bark out a laugh and Kiandah’s lips quirk. I begrudgingly lie back onto my stomach, mostly to cushion the erection she’s just provoked. Luckily, movement makes the pain flare and it’s possible to overcome my sudden need for her. A gift, when she ambles off of the bed a few moments later.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to fix you a meal.”

“You’re still injured from yesterday, Kiandah. We need to wait for Okayo to return with the rest of his supplies. You must rest in the meantime.”

“He has already seen to me.”

“And said your throat needs medication.”

“The bruises look worse than they feel.”

“Kiandah, sit.”

“Worry about yourself. You’re not healing properly because of the undead Alpha venom in your system.” She makes an angry sound. “I cannot believe you willingly injected yourself with that.” I plant my right cheek on the mattress and see her walking across the room away from me. I try to rise, but before I can so much as shift my arm, Kiandah pegs me with an angry stare. “If you get out of that bed, I will punish you, Lord Yaron. You will not like how,” she says, repeating my own words. “Okayo says you need to keep still so you can keep your blood pressure low.”

“Kiandah…” She’s ignoring me entirely, sliding her arms into the sleeves of a fresh tunic. One of mine. I need to procure her clothing. The Lady of the Shadowlands can’t be walking around the castle in a fucking shirt. “Put pants on, for your precious ancestors’ sakes.”

She rolls her eyes, but does as I ask, then she heads to the door, despite my instruction. “I’ll be back shortly with Okayo, if he’s not back before I return. Stay still. If I find you up and moving about the room when I return, I need not remind you that there will be consequences, Lord.”

If I were feeling better, my beast would have certainly surfaced at that pronouncement. As it is, all I can do is listen to her and let her go. She is not a captive, she is not a slave to me. In fact, one could argue quite the opposite. I yearn for her approval, for her to find me just as she left me, but also for her punishment, to chase after her — but the trouble is, I really am tired…I yawn once and I fall asleep to the scent of Kiandah, still lingering on my sheets.

The sounds of voices rouse me some time later. Kiandah’s light laughter is punctuated by a deeper voice saying, “…was nothing…my pleasure…”

I wake fully then and jerk back, only to have a heavy weight smack the back of my head. “Stay still,” Okayo’s throaty voice says from much closer. “I know what you’re thinking and no, Kiandah is not thanking Dorsten for bending her over your half-dead corpse and fucking her…”

“Okayo,” Dorsten’s deep voice rings at the same time Kiandah shouts, “Ancestors bless. What are you two talking about?”

She comes closer and I still struggle to blink my eyes fully open. I’m exhausted. I’m not used to feeling this tired. This injured. And then I remember the undead venom in my veins and how I have felt this tired and exhausted once before, when I was bitten in Echo’s garden, in the battle of the North Island against the reanimated corpses. But I did not have Kiandah’s voice and touch to soothe me then.

“Lord Yaron was prepared to launch out of bed and strike Dorsten down for defiling your honor, but rather than risk burning the shit out of him, I decided to cut off that impulse at the knees.”

“Defiling…burning… What are you talking about?” Kiandah’s voice is near a shriek as she hands her tray to Dorsten standing at the door, eyes bugging out of his head.

“Uh…” Dorsten starts, moving to set the steaming tray of food on the table. “I will leave you all.”

“What were you doing with Kiandah?” I ask him while Kiandah and Okayo argue over my back.

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